The Sphinx's Lair

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12:06 AM

I have been trying to back up a bit and tinker around with clues, but anything I do messes up logic that I love... so this is a beautiful, elegant, unfinished Pento-Doku. It will work eventually

Sphinx

12:56 AM

Q: 4x4 grid with no trominoes containing repeating colors

Paint the cells of a 4x4 grid with $n$ colors, such that every possible tromino found in the grid uses 3 different colors. What is the smallest value of $n$ possible in such a coloring?

Sphinx

1:47 AM

Q: 5x5 grid with no tetrominoes containing repeating colors

Paint the cells of a 5x5 grid with $𝑛$ colors, such that every possible tetromino found in the grid uses 4 different colors. What is the smallest value of $𝑛$ possible in such a coloring? Here is a similar question for trominoes in a 4x4 grid.

mathematics combinatorics

4 hours later…

Jafe

5:30 AM

COLORS could be defined by "standard" (as in a flag), but i don't see how the wordplay would work

bobble

So I'm using a hand-coded Sudoku solver to help me see hidden singles in my Pento-Doku (because I am bad at that sometimes). It appears to be smarter than me. It has some deductions displayed that I haven't been able to justify to myself...

(It is a very stupid Sudoku solver... can only deal with hidden singles/doubles/triples & regular line-of-sight logic)

Graylocke

@Jafe agreed - it isn't the word I was referring to :)

Bubbler

@bobble You might want to try out SudoCue for that purpose

(not sure if it runs fine in, say, Windows 10 though)

bobble

I've always been able to read its mind before... this may warrant poking around the code and sticking some print statements in

Though I haven't touched the actual source code for it in ages

ahah! I have figured out what my solver was thinking

Jafe

6:22 AM

it was plotting world domination, i bet

5 hours later…

Sphinx

11:13 AM

Q: Identifying wooden puzzle-box featured in Tomb Raider?

In the film Tomb Raider (2018) there is a wooden puzzle-box with rotating sections. Once the correct sequence of moves is performed, a drawer pops out. See here: Upon seeing it she says: Karakuri. Japanese puzzle. Is this design based on a real puzzle? Possibly by the Karakuri group? Note: s...

puzzle-identification mechanical-puzzles

5 hours later…

Sphinx

3:57 PM

Q: A No Sensa Test Question with Mediterranean Flavor

Which of the three options fit in the central Octagon which is common to the two diagonals, one vertical and one horizontal row. Seperately,each diagonal row (Brown and Red boxes), the horizontal row (Blue boxes) and the vertical row (Black boxes) creates a pattern when combined with the Octagon ...

knowledge pattern

2 hours later…

Sphinx

6:06 PM

Q: A Fractal Sudoku - SS#13

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #47: "Wacky Sudokus" Other puzzles in this series Welcome to the penultimate puzzle in this series! For more information about the series, see the first puzzle and the introduction. Enjoy! Seems like this grid has had some extra cells inse...

logical-deduction grid-deduction sudoku

bobble

6:24 PM

@Stiv, editing old Word(tm) puzzles is less useful than other kinds of puzzles which need Markdown table-fying, as Lukas Rotter is automating fixing up old Word(tm) puzzles. What would be helpful is cases where important information such as asterisks is not included in the CSV, but that wasn't the case there. Feel free to edit if you wish, but your efforts are better spent elsewhere.

(If you want a nice, limited set of puzzles needing table-fying, the old Vowelburger(tm) puzzles in general didn't come with CSV files)

bobble

6:42 PM

am I annoying people with my Pento-Doku updates? I am all of a sudden worried

Prince North Læraðr

Nah, I don't think so

bobble

I made some progress - removed a clue, added a clue - and there is now more Nice Logic. Problem is that I have the Pento part completely determined, while there are still 14 unknowns in the Doku part, and though added a clue in any of those areas would create a unique solution it would allow jumping over lots of earlier logic... >.>

I've checked and there are now exactly 2 solutions :(

Stiv

7:04 PM

@bobble Noted, thanks :) Apart from my own and one I answered at the same time I think I only did one of those (Today? Yesterday?!) as a way to get a feel for how the new tables work. Will keep an eye out for a Vowelburger every now and then!

Jeremy Dover

Hey bobble...I've been using sudokuwiki.org/sudoku.htm to help me test solve. It has a lot of strategies, and I like how you can step through them.

Beastly Gerbil

7:48 PM

Well someone just went and upvoted every single one of my SS so far... thats def gonna be flagged :P

bobble

I've upvoted each as it came out, so that's fine

Beastly Gerbil

Yeah someone just did them all in the space of about 2 minutes

I've learned so far from the SS that people like sudokus with a normal grid but something different, than a normal sudoku with a different grid

I'll have to bare that in mind for any future puzzles, luckily the last one tomorrow is normal grid, different mechanic

bobble

"bare"? :P

Beastly Gerbil

Have I used the wrong bare? Is it bear? I don't actually know which one it should be for that expression :P

bobble

bear

Noun: bear (plural bears)

A large omnivorous mammal, related to the dog and raccoon, having shaggy hair, a very small tail, and flat feet; a member of family Ursidae.
(figuratively) A rough, unmannerly, uncouth person. [1579]
(finance) An investor who sells commodities, securities, or futures in anticipation of a fall in prices. [1744]
Antonym: bull
(slang, US) A state policeman (short for smokey bear). [1970s]

(4 more not shown…)

bare

Adjective: bare (comparative barer, superlative barest)

Minimal; that is or are just sufficient.
Naked, uncovered.
Having no supplies.
a room bare of furniture
The cupboard was bare.2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

(3 more not shown…)

vocabulary.com/dictionary/…

conclusion: it's "bear in mind"

Beastly Gerbil

7:53 PM

Whoops... :P

Hmmm I'm just trying to figure out how I could make an actual fractal sudoku

bobble

two oneboxes and a link may have been a little overkill

Beastly Gerbil

I can think of a couple of way that I might be able to make a fractal sudoku possibly work, but I'm not sure any of them would have infinite iterations...

One to put in my list of future puzzle ideas at least!

bobble

take inspiration from jafe's recent infinite cryptic?

Beastly Gerbil

That and the deus honeypot will definitely be looked at

matt

@bobble just a tiny bit :p

Jeremy Dover

8:07 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Are you familiar with Sierpinski's carpet? That gives you a structure that looks like it might be Sudoku-able.

Beastly Gerbil

Well I wasn't familiar with it until now, but that was the exact format I was thinking of :P

Sphinx

9:07 PM

Q: Cutting a shape into two equal area shapes

Given the following shape - an hexagon ABCDEF of which a parallelogram CDGH is cut out. With a single cut divide the shape into two equal area shapes by means of an unmarked . You may draw lines and points to find the cut. It is not too hard but interesting feature to exercise.

geometry

Sphinx

9:32 PM

Q: Help with a program to solve Einstein's Riddle

I have been trying to write a program (just for fun) to solve Einstein’s Riddle, see https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rottzgames.logic. My solution basically does this: It creates an array with all possible solutions and a version of the 'board' It then goes through each clues a...